How will the world end! - Page 5

On July 08 2009 04:16 OreoBoi wrote:
The world will end the day that Blizzard cancels WoW, Battle.net/Battle.net2 for SC2 and Diablo 3 goes down and Valve is gone so steam died too.

On July 07 2009 19:02 imperator-xy wrote:
i think the maya calendar just ends at this date

On July 07 2009 16:14 Sad[Panda] wrote:
Take a step up and make your own end of the world theory

On July 08 2009 05:07 sushiman wrote:
Yellow winning a starleague final.

On July 08 2009 05:26 MamiyaOtaru wrote:

Are you really wondering about the end of the world, or just the end of mankind? The world isn't going anywhere until the Sun expands and swallows it. Mankind? Different story.

I used to worry about Grey Goo as an inevitability given advancing technology, but we'll never get that far before the oil crash. That isn't even an end of mankind scenario, though it's a possible end of industrial civilization scenario. We're never going to the stars unfortunately. Probably not even back to the moon. Not enough energy.

If we start now we might be able to switch our energy infrastructure over to something not fossil fuel based before said fossil fuel becomes scarce enough to make that an impossibility from an energy standpoint. Perhaps cars running on hydrogen produced at fusion plants (wishful thinking)

That's still only a partial solution though. All that food we produce with fossil fuel based fertilizers and pesticides, protected by fossil fuel based plastics is going to dry up even if we can move the tractors and semis involved in its production and transportation over to hydrogen.

Basically, we have a surplus of energy right now due to all the fossil fuels left over from the planet's past. As it becomes more scarce, it takes more energy to extract it. Eventually, way down the road, it will not be possible to get more energy out of it than is spent extracting it. We need to be switching to something else while there is still a surplus so we have the energy to do so, as switching will require a massive energy investment.

This requires that a new source of energy is found (there is currently no source of energy capable of providing as much as is used now) and that we have a way to disseminate it to where it is needed. So that source needs to be discovered and the infrastructure created before we run out of energy with which to do it from our current sources.

More immediately, oil isn't going to run out any time soon, but all it needs is to become scarcer. Production has peaked, and demand continues to rise as places like China jump on the energy hog bandwagon (currently driven by us). The effect can be seen in the price of gas since 2000 despite the recent dip in prices thanks to a general recession. That dip was an anomaly. It will rise again, and continue to do so. As everything else is based off of it, everything else (critically: food) will as well. The effects of that could be seen in the discontent that manifested itself recently in Saudi Arabia. Rich from their oil exports, they were still squeezed by the rising price of the food they have to import. Less rich areas will be hit all the harder.

This isn't the end of the world, or even mankind, but it will mark the end of leisure and technology for all but a select few. I really hope Starcraft 2 comes out before then, and that we have a few more lasting recessions to keep production and demand down for a little longer. But that's hardly a solution either. Economists will tell you the market will adjust to the higher prices and demand will drop (happened last year) but there is a finite amount of resources, and the best we can hope for is continuing, deepening recessions keeping demand from gobbling up what's left too fast. We're stuck between spiraling inflation and recession with no way out. There's my scenario.

On July 07 2009 17:12 VIB wrote:
Savior: "I will destroy everyone in 2012.. This time, I MEAN IT!"